At least 28 people, most of them schoolchildren, have been killed after the roof of a privately run school collapsed on its pupils during lessons in Peshawar, north-west Pakistan, on Thursday 15 October 2026. The death toll remains uncertain and is expected to rise as rescue teams continue searching the rubble.
The collapse happened at the Al-Khair Education Center in the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to Reuters, 27 pupils — the majority of them under the age of 13 — and one teacher lost their lives when the roof gave way. Later reporting from AP and regional outlets suggested an even higher toll of up to 34 children and a teacher, with more than 50 people injured. Authorities have not yet confirmed a final figure, and officials at the scene warned that more victims were likely still buried.
Rescue operation races against time
Emergency crews were on the scene within minutes of the collapse, which occurred while classes were in session. Rescue 1122 spokesman Bilal Ahmad Faizi said that one roof had collapsed on top of another, crushing the classroom beneath the full weight of both structures. He said the service had deployed 16 ambulances, two disaster-response vehicles and more than 60 personnel to the site.
District emergency officer Iftikhar Khan said that at least 45 children had been pulled from the debris, with more feared trapped underneath. At Lady Reading Hospital, spokesman Mohammad Asim said emergency measures had been declared and that the injured were being treated. Earlier reporting by AFP noted that six of the injured were in critical condition.
The scale of the danger became clear in the first hours, when officials revealed that only 47 of the 110 students across three classrooms had been accounted for — meaning dozens of children remained unaccounted for as rescuers worked through the night with cranes, search dogs and hand tools.
A building doomed by neglect
Peshawar police chief Mian Saeed said early indications pointed to what he described as a "weak building structure", adding that the roof had been made "overweight with construction". While the precise trigger of the collapse is still under investigation, his remarks suggest that unauthorised building work on top of an already fragile structure may have overloaded the roof beyond what it could bear.
An investigation has been ordered into the disaster. School officials have so far made no public comment on the incident. Questions are already being asked about how a building housing more than a hundred young children could have been allowed to operate with such apparent structural flaws — and whether any authority had inspected the premises before the collapse.
The school, run privately, served families in the area whose children were attending ordinary lessons when the roof suddenly gave way. Witnesses described scenes of chaos and panic as parents rushed to the site, some digging with their bare hands alongside the rescue teams.
A city in mourning
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed deep sorrow over the loss of life and extended condolences to the bereaved families, according to government statements. Local officials in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa visited the site and the hospital, where anxious relatives crowded corridors awaiting news of their children.
Mass funeral prayers were announced over mosque loudspeakers across the city, with burials planned at the Rehman Baba cemetery — a sign of the scale of communal grief the disaster has inflicted. The names of the young victims are being released as families are notified.
The tragedy has struck a nerve far beyond Peshawar. Across Pakistan, parents and educators are demanding answers about the safety of school buildings, particularly private institutions that operate with less oversight than government schools.
